From the archives: Menlo back on top in CCS

“Insanely far,” Menlo fourth-year varsity senior Mia Rosenblatt said. “In our freshman year, we were in the lower league in the PAL Ocean. To be honest, we weren’t that good a team. So, we’ve grown exponentially.”

Well, there’s nothing like the insanity of a Central Coast Section championship to cap a high school career. Rosenblatt and the top-seed Lady Knights (20-9) reveled in the pool Monday afternoon at Independence High School after achieving precisely that, claiming the CCS Division II girls’ water polo crown with a 20-10 win over No. 3 Saratoga (24-4).

The title marks the seventh all-time for the Menlo girls, but the first since 2006. And after reaching the championship game last season, only to fall 7-3 to top-seed Valley Christian. The silver lining of the 2017 disappointment was it served as quite the motivator this season.

“It’s awesome,” Rosenblatt said. “Obviously we’ve been working really hard coming off a loss last year. So we’re pumped. We worked so hard. And that’s what got us here.”

It was a tough task for both teams to get back to work Monday. The championship game was originally scheduled for Saturday afternoon, but was postponed until air quality from smoke caused by the Camp Fire in Paradise returned to safe levels. Monday’s game wasn’t confirmed until 11 a.m. that morning. Prior to that, Menlo hadn’t been in the pool for four days, its longest layoff all season.

But Menlo junior Annie Bisconti said it didn’t affect her team come game time.

“I don’t think so,” Bisconti said. “I think it got us ready, having pressure on us for a few days. We were a little nervous not practicing for four days, but it all worked out.”

The Knights were certainly firing on all cylinders, jumping out to a 5-0 lead in the first period and never looking back. Moreover, Menlo did it with style, touting a team concept that has made al the difference from last season to this one.

Bisconti was one of five Menlo players to score a hat trick with precisely three goals apiece. The junior attacker assured a balanced attack by totaling six assists.

“Last year we put a lot of effort in,” Menlo head coach Claire Howie said. “We just recognized we needed a lot more of a team dynamic. And a lot of these younger players put in a lot of work.”

For sure. Senior team captains Meg Reinstra and Meri Klingelhofer were among those who scored hat tricks. But junior Sophie Golub and freshman Alina Hernandez also got in on the act. Junior Sydney Bianchi also came on strong in the fourth quarter, scoring both her goals over the closing seven minutes.

“This season, it was about working on helping each other as teammates and not taking the spotlight for ourselves,” Bisconti said.

Howie has had quite an impact on the program as well. The first-year head coach joined in 2017 as an assistant. The 2013 Los Altos High School Female Athlete of the Year now has back-to-back championship-game appearances at the forefront of her resume, and a CCS title in her first year as head coach.

Bisconti has been the leading scorer in each of the past two seasons. But she didn’t need any coaxing to move the team concept forward this year.

“A lot of girls would force the ball to her,” Howie said. “This year, she puts it back to them and says, ‘No, it’s your shot.’”

Menlo’s depth helped win the day as well. In last year’s championship match, the Knights utilized nine players. This year, 12 players rotated through the pool in the title win.

Hernandez picked up two fouls in the first half Monday. But it didn’t put Menlo in perilous territory because of the team’s depth.

“It think that was a big sigh of relief,” Howie said.

That’s nothing like the sigh of relief when the Knights partied in the pool on the heels of their first girls’ water polo championship in a generation though.

“It was awesome,” Bisconti said. “It was an amazing feeling.”